第二节：完形填空（共20小题；每小题1分，满分20分）

请认真阅读下面短文，从短文后各题所给的A、B、C、D四个选项中，选出最佳选项，并在答题卡上将该项涂黑。

A few years ago I invited some friends to have a party in my house. During the 36 , a glass of red wine was dropped on a very fancy, Persian carpet in the living room. Later, when I planned to have the carpet 37 , experts came out. They 38 that they could not only get out the 39 , but also make every carpeted room look and smell nice.

After spending more than 200 dollars, my 40 looked great. All of the carpets were cleaned, but there was still one slight 41 — the stain was still there, and to say I was 42

was actually an understatement. Committed to getting rid of the stain, I 43 another expert. This was a real expert with great 44 in this trade. When he arrived and saw the stain, he immediately explained to me how 45 it would be to deal with the stain, and he wanted me to know that before he even unloaded his 46 to start the job. My expectation at that point was low; however, I told him to put in his best 47 .

In the first scenario(情景) I expected the stain to be 48 . In the second I expected little or nothing. Those made me realize that in life the fine line between 49 and disappointment can be our expectations. Disappointment will occur 50 the expectation line drawn by ourselves is placed incorrectly. 51 , good things will happen if you set your expectations 52 . In the carpet cleaning scenario above, the second 53 not only set my expectations appropriately by underpromising, but he also overdelivered by getting the stain out—a result that 54 my expectations, making me very 55 . So remember: set your expectations properly. 36. A. show 37. A. rolled 38. A. promised 39. A. scar

B. speech B. fixed B. doubted B. stain B. garden B. problem B. cheerful B. paid off

C. work C. cleaned C. warned C. paint C. house

D. get-together D. designed D. complained D. sweat D. furniture D. improvement D. disappointed D. broke with D. reputation

40. A. walls 41. A. doubt 42. A. calm

C. difference C. satisfied

43. A. called in 44. A. interest

C. attended to C. adventure

B. character

45. A. attrative 46. A. product 47. A. effort 48. A. saved

B. difficult B. garbage B. symbol B. covered B. surprise B. until

C. common

D. popular D. collection D. benefit D. removed D. regret D. but

D. On the contrary D. honestly D. cleaner D. turned down D. upset

C. equipment C. record

C. displayed C. happiness C. if

49. A. disatisfaction 50. A. so

51. A. In conslusion 52. A .abruptly 53. A. player 54. A. added up 55. A .glad

B. To be honest C. On the whole C. properly C. neighbor

B. incorrectly

B. advisor

B. ruled out B. sad

C. went beyond C. angry

第三部分：阅读理解（共15小题；每小题2分，满分30分）

请认真阅读下列短文，从短文后各题所给的A、B、C、D四个选项中，选出最佳选项，并在答题卡上将该项涂黑。

A

For those that may not be familiar, there is such a thing as a bicycle grant(补助金). As a matter of fact, there are a number of organizations and programs offering bicycle grants to bicyclers all over the world. Now of course, you can‘t simply receive money, if you want to buy a new mountain bike. Usually, those awarded grants are working on improving the quality of life. People are excited about the bicycle grant. It is gaining attention of various organizations that want to help by providing the necessary funding. Eastman Kodak Company

Kodak has developed a fund called the ―Kodak American Greenways Awards‖. It is teaming up with the National Geographic Society and the Conservation Fund. Each year, they present grants as high as $2,500. The ―seed‖ grant award is awarded to organizations that focus on improving blueways, greenways, natural areas and trails. U.S. Government

The government has developed its own program for bicycle riders, called ―The U.S. Department of Transportation‘s Recreational Trails Program‖. The government‘s program is primarily focused on funding trail projects. The benefit of the fund is recreation, which includes bicycling, hiking, in-line skating,

snowmobiling, all-terrain vehicle (全地行车) riding and so forth. The great addition to the fund is that the fund is distributed to all the states. This means that everybody has the opportunity of receiving bicycle grants.

Bikes Belong Coalition

The Bikes Belong Coalition gives putting on more people on bicycles top priority. It advocates a better environment, recreation, sport, and better health, by way of bicycling. At the same time, it provides funding for supporting projects and bicycle facilities. Some of the projects it accepts are paved lanes and bike paths. Applications for its grants can be submitted by either a facility class or a supporting class. Also, the Bikes Belong Coalition is not quick to award bicycle grants to those that have been awarded in the past 3 years. This is partly due to its limited amount of funding. 56. What‘s the main purpose of the bicycle grants? A. To increase the sales of the bicycles C. To make bicyclers more popular

B. To advocate a healthy lifestyle D. To advertise some companies

57. Receivers of grants offered by the U.S. Government are _____________. A .winners

B

For those of us who sat through endless piano lessons as children, or spent summers learning a foreign language while our friends played outside, we probably never thanked our parents for those experiences. However, we weren‘t just put through endless extra-curricular activities just so our elders could enjoy some free time. In fact, the best time to learn sound-based skills such as languages or music is at a young age. As the brain is still developing, it‘s the perfect time to take in certain information.

But thanks to a new discovery by researchers at St Jude Children‘s Research Hospital in Memphis, US, adults may also be able to learn a new sound-based skill just as well as younger people can.

Using mice as test patients, the researchers found that the adult brain of both mice and humans – produces high levels of adenosine (腺甘酸), a chemical that slows down the ability to learn from sound. In younger brains, adenosine levels are much lower.

After finding a way to stop the brain from producing as much adenosine, the mice became more aware of sounds and were able to tell the difference between different notes played to them. This ability was previously unknown

B. states

C. riders

D. clubs

The researchers believe that if a drug is developed to slow down adenosine production in adult humans, it will unlock the ability to learn sound-based skills easier.

―These results offer a promising strategy to extend the same window in humans to acquire language or musical ability,‖ co-author Stanislav Zakharenko wrote in the study.

It‘s also believed that the findings could help people with serious medical conditions such as tinnitus (耳鸣), or those who have suffered a stroke .

If the researchers eventually go on to develop the drug, however, this probably won‘t mean that we could become masters of the violin or speak fluent Italian after taking a few pills.

Like everything in life worth doing, time, patience and hard work will probably still be needed if we want to take on a new sound-based skill.

58. The researchers discovered from their studies that a high level of adenosine _______. A. usually exists in younger brains B. made mice more sensitive to sounds

C. helped mice improve the ability to learn from sound D. stopped mice developing sound-based abilities easily 59. According to the text, the findings could help _______. A. children learn language more easily B. adults develop musical skills better C. people with tinnitus recover completely D. protect people against a stroke

60. What message does the author intend to convey in the last two paragraphs? A. He is pessimistic about the drug being developed. B. Everything worth doing deserves to be done well.

C. He is hopeful that the new drug will make it easy to master new skills.

D. There is no replacement for time and effort when it comes to learning new things.

C

For those who are too young to know what a Tamagotchi is, it‘s an egg-shaped plastic device with a black-and-white screen on which appears a little pixelated pet. ?